American Illustration 30

space
Well hello Blog. I was just notified that three of my pieces have been selected to appear in the American Illustration 30 annual. I'm very excited, as this is a 300% improvement over last year. Among the selections are two pieces from Bang Boom Pow (last's year's collab with Andy Lin, Kids With Candy, and models Julia Royter and Elaina Royter), and a piece from You're My Favorite, which makes me very happy as that series is very close to my heart.

Congrats to everyone that won and I'll see you at the party.

Apple Store SoHo, this Monday

black
Hi Blog, don't forget that this Monday, January 17 at 6:30pm I'll be appearing at the Apple Store SoHo in conjunction with the ADC Young Gun series. I will discuss my range of work and have a few surprises in store as well. At this point, its looking closer to a variety show than keynote speech.

Also, I will have complementary gifts from the There Goes The Neighbor Hood concept for those that show up early. This gift is highly wearable.

See you there.

01.17.11 / Rich Tu @ Apple Store, SoHo, NYC

space
Hey blog, exciting news. On Monday, January 17th, 6:30pm I'll be giving a lecture at the Apple Store in SoHo, NYC in conjunction with The Art Directors Club and their Young Guns lecture series. Their theater seats about 100 people and is specially designed for workshops and presentations, along with occasional musical performance. I will discuss my work, my thought process, and current projects. Also, there will be a Q&A afterward. I look forward to seeing you there.

Monday, January 17, 2011
6:30 - 8:00 PM
Apple Store SoHo
103 Prince Street, NYC

Free, no reservation required.

ADC Young Guns 8

space
Hi Blog, so it's official. Congrats to the other 49 winners of this year's ADCYG8. I'm really amazed at the depth of this year's field and how great all these artists' are. I'm stoked to be included in the same conversation with them.

Fun fact: This is the first time that brothers have won YG (Jayson Atienza, YG6).

American Illustration 29

space
Good afternoon blog. Not too long ago I was informed that my image "The Man Wakes Up" from the "Let There Be Stuff" Series was selected for the American Illustration 29 annual. I'm pretty honored, as this was one of the 388 images selected out of 8000+ submissions. This will be my first inclusion in the book. Soon a print of this piece will be available on Little Paper Planes for purchase (you can contact me privately as well). Also, the two images below, "Down the Highway, into the Night" and "He Felt Like He Was Floating Above Himself" were chosen for the website.














On a serious note, my family suffered a loss this week, as my grandmother passed on at the age of 90 early Sunday morning. She was the mother of ten children (my mother being the eldest), and was absolutely the epitome of strength and class. I appreciate the outpouring of support that my family and myself have received. Many thanks to you all.

Manifest Equality

space
Heads up, Blog. I recently submitted a piece to Manifest Equality's contest and just found out I'm one of the winners (which is unbelievable). Some of the judges included Shepard Fairey, Ed Ruscha, David Pagel, and even the mayor of Los Angeles. For those who don't know, Manifest Equality is a HUGE show that's going to take place in LA next week that centers on themes like social justice and equality.

As for the piece I'm showing, it's a new one, and I'll wait until the opening to debut it. However, if you're going to be in/near/around LA next week you have to go check it out. Some of the other artists in the show include Ron English, Ted McGrath, Swoon, Harvey Pekar, Gary Baseman, Jayson Atienza and a TON of others.

Fun in the Sun.

High/Buy

space
What it is, Blog. We are officially "happy" about "holidays". Personally, I think any holiday not spent acquiring a DUI is a good one.

Over Thanksgiving I worked on some pieces for the lovely people at BusinessWeek and my first one for The New Yorker (!), which I'll post another time. The piece above is the BW half-page about e-tailers (I guess that's a word now) using social media to attract customers in droves for discounted items. Has anyone ever drawn a flock of Twitter birds? I hope not, I like to think I invented it.

I also did a smaller piece concerning the inadequacies of young managers, which you can view here.

In other news, I am included in the Society of Illustrators 52 sequential category for both "Let There Be Stuff" and "Rabbits". Wine and cheese please.

That's about it, Blog. Live to be stoked.

I'm a Wiener

space
Hi Blog, I just won first place in the Illustration Series and the Overall in the Altpick Awards for my Let There Be Stuff Series. Also, I won second place in the Design category for the SVA MFA Poster. Its an amazing honor, especially considering how great all the other artists are (David Plunkert's poster series was my favorite).

Thanks to all the judges, you're too generous! You can see all the winners here.

That's it for now, later Blog.

Its an honor just to be nominated...

space

Its official. They've announced the nominees list for the Swatch Young Illustrators Award 2009 on the Illustrative website, and on the Illustrative Blog.

I'm insanely excited, and have never wanted to jump on a plane more than right now. Its an incredible honor to be included with such an amazing group of artists. The exhibition goes up on October 16th and goes down on November 1st.

Also, almost everyone in my category is from a different country, and I'm the only American. That's kinda awesome.

Benefit Concerts and Awards With Benefits

Hi blog, should I just put the image(s) at the top from now on? I probably should right? Right. This is the save-the-date card for WBGO's Champions of Jazz Benefit Concert on November 3rd. They're celebrating their 30th anniversary this year and its a pleasure to have them as a client at this moment in their broadcast life.

They're definitely going big this year and having the benefit at the Lincoln Center. NBC's Lester Holt is the Master of Ceremonies and the show will feature performances by the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. I'm not sure when tickets go on sale, but it'll be a great evening to say the least.

In other news, been busy these past couple of weeks. Picked up a couple of new clients and been entering a few illustration competitions. Notably, the Altpick Awards is having their open submissions and its reasonably priced with awesome prizes. I also entered the Swatch Young Illustrator Awards, which looks pretty fun. They only take personal work (no commercial work) and submissions had to be in pdf format. I included a bunch of stuff along with a resume at the end. Feel free to download it here:

Rich Tu's Illustrative '09 Submission

So that's it for now.

This week went by much too quickly.

congratulations, you may already be a winner...

Hey Blog, what it is. My Memorial Day weekend was filled with beer-ified outdoors-iness, along with at least one t-shirt change due to a hose and water balloon related wetting. Good times had by all.

Anyway, if you've been on my site you might notice I've added a couple of new shots of this year's Altpick Double Deck. And not for nothing, but switching to a scrolling galleries is so money, and so much better IMO than clicking through images. It makes me want to preplan my imagery and think about it comprehensively, instead of simply plugging it in.

Also, since Summer is rapidly approaching, the Altpick Awards are nearly here! The official announcement has not yet arrived, but I just finished the banner for it so I wanted to give you guys a sneak peak. I've seen the list of judges too and its pretty badass, great crop this year. Anyway, while nothing is official as of yet, here's the banner.

This was my second attempt, and much more focused and iconographic than the first. Its the sixth year, so the "six" became my icon. Honestly, I think I got too rigid on the first try, and tried to shoehorn in some stuff that just didn't work out. In the end, simplicity ruled the day, and it was better to inject some explicit playfulness. The approved version is MUCH better, and I smirk to myself whenever I open the file. So as I highlight my successes, I'll highlight my failure too and show you one of the early versions.

This is the most colorful of the early versions, and I never actually showed it to anyone, as this was right before I went back to the drawing board. Its ok, just not great or memorable. On a related note, I'm trying to figure out how to bring in more illustrative elements to my design work without it feeling too heavy handed. The two are really separate for me right now; design elements service the image, and vice versa. This early attempt was trying to fuse them both, but it didn't really gel properly.

Anyway, diggin' the final product! And getting ready for some life changes so I'll keep you posted. Until then, later blog.

Altpick Awards and The Love Between a Man and a Pig

Hi Blog. I'm a little behind in the update, but I'm gonna make up for it. I recently did a small illustration for Time Out New York magazine. They take photo submissions from readers and find illustrators to create comic-style strips. Here's the photo:

And here's my strip:

Many thanks to Jeff Quinn from Time Out for allowing me to create something even more juvenile than my unborn niece.

Also, the Altpick Awards website has officially launched! Its the fifth year, and it looks to be a lot of fun.
Altpick Awards Call For Entries

Until next time.